At the Center on Halsted, 120 people from at least 15 companies spent Friday sorting school supplies and building kits filled with pens, notebooks, rulers, folders for underserved students.
Each kit also contained a handwritten note of encouragement.
“Children are the future of our country and our world,” said Michael Plageman, a chair of membership on the LGBT Board of Commerce. “It’s important to show them they are loved and supported.”
Plageman’s group joined with Chicago-based nonprofit Back 2 School America and local groups within companies to fill the supply kits — part of B2SA’s Build-A-Kit program, in which companies or groups purchase bulk school supplies from the nonprofit and then assemble the kits together. The project fosters team-building, trust and enjoyment while also giving back to the community, according to Back 2 School America’s CEO, Matthew Kurtzman.
“These are families that are struggling to put food on the table and pay their mortgage or rent and get their car fixed and buy medicine,” Kurtzman said. “So school supplies is often something that falls to the bottom of the list.”
Five Illinois organizations that serve children in low-income families will receive the kits Monday, Kurtzman said, including YWCA of Lake County, Mano a Mano, Street Samaritans, the Urban Muslim Minority Alliance Center and Great Lakes Naval Base through a partnership with Operation Homefront.
“Don’t underestimate what you are doing today because it matters,” Kurtzman said to the participants. “It really matters.”
Participant Paige Dwyer from Guaranteed Rate said she has always been involved in volunteer work and now gets involved through her workplace.
“Guaranteed Rate has an organization called PROUD, it’s an LGBTQ+ community that we have at work, and we try to find all these different events and rally the troops to come and volunteer whenever we can,” Dwyer said.
